Glendale runner provides account of Boston Marathon aftermath

A Glendale woman who ran the Boston Marathon Monday said a day of happiness has been shattered.

"We were a block from the explosion," said Lisa Martin. "We heard something explode. We didn't know what it was."

Martin had left a first aid tent and was walking with her husband when one of the explosions went off. She said the scene quickly became chaotic.

"All of a sudden the cops came up to us and said 'It's a bomb, you have to go,'" she said. "It was like a whirlwind. It was super-emotional because all the people crying and you don't really know what happened."

The first two blasts at the race site took place almost simultaneously and about 100 yards apart, tearing limbs off numerous people, knocking spectators and at least one runner off their feet, shattering windows and sending smoke rising over the street.

As people wailed in agony, bloody spectators were carried to a medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners.

"They just started bringing people in in with no limbs," said Tim Davey, of Richmond, Va. He said he and his wife, Lisa, tried to keep their children's eyes shielded from the gruesome scene.

"They just kept filling up with more and more casualties," Lisa Davey said. "Most everybody was conscious. They were very dazed."

Some 27,000 runners took part in the 26.2-mile race, one of the world's premier marathons and one of Boston's biggest annual events.

After the explosions, cellphone service was shut down in the area to prevent any possible remote explosive detonations, a law enforcement official said.

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